For a while I’d been running a podcast which was the audio of my YouTube videos, but because of a problem in wordpress’s API for file uploads, it’s just too much of a pain in the neck right now, so for the foreseeable future I’m not going to be uploading the podcast.
(I am planning to make posts which embed the YouTube video, which is far less work for me than extracting the audio and uploading it.)
A discussion of the story from which the Mary Sue character came. A followup to a previous post. You can also watch it on YouTube, if you like:
A look at where the idea of “shades of grey” comes from—specifically, how it’s a logical consequence of consequentialism. There is a followup to Why Consequentialists See Only Shades of Grey. You can also watch it on YouTube:
In which I look at the story of a nerf gun used as a cognitive behavioral therapy tool, and an interesting issue mentioned in the story. (I have a previous post about this with some of the story as text.) You can also view this on YouTube:
No one actually believes in the burden of proof, not even the people who constantly talk about it. You can also watch this video on YouTube:
Thoughts on how to find one’s purpose in life. You can also watch on YouTube:
I talked with the Herald of the Pulp Revolution, Cheah Kai Wai (note that Kai Wai is his personal name), about writing, stories, and related subjects.
You can also watch it on YouTube, if you prefer:
“Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’
Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval.
But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’” –Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
You can also watch the video on YouTube:
I recently explained hell to my nine year old son in a way that presented the adult version rather than the kid’s cartoon-book version and he understood it, so I’m relating that explanation here because it might be of interest.
You can also watch this on YouTube:
I discuss fasting and the value of such practices in Lent. You can watch it on YouTube, if you prefer:
I talk about why one should be very wary of people who approve of your vices—they want something from you. You can also watch this on YouTube:
A friend, acting out of morbid curiosity, watched a video by Bionic Dance that responded to my video, Life Doesn’t Have the Meaning You Give it, and alerted to me to it having some questions in it which might be interesting to answer. So I watched the video myself, wrote down the interesting questions, and answered them in this video.
I didn’t make a response video to her because—as I said in my video on why I’m not going to respond to her again—she contradicts herself so often that no response is needed; one only needs watch the entirety of her video (and remember what she said in the earlier parts) to see her refute herself. However, I will answer questions which I think can be generally useful regardless of where they came from, and these happened to be fairly well phrased for general use.
You can also watch it on YouTube:
In this episode I discuss the idea that “life has the meaning you give it” and how it’s not true. If you prefer, you can watch the video on YouTube:
I talk about why the book How To Win Friends And Influence People is a good book. I highly recommend it. You can also watch this on YouTube if you prefer:
Or you can watch the video on YouTube, if you prefer:
On the internet one will run across many atheists who are speaking in bad faith. I give a technique for how to tell whether any given atheist is speaking in good faith or in bad faith. Or you can view it on YouTube, if you like:
Professor Rachel Fulton Brown and I discussed historical fiction and related subjects in this interview which was, by my standards, surprisingly on-topic. (It would generally be considered fairly wide-ranging, I think.) You can also watch it on YouTube if you prefer:
One commonly hears from online atheists that if you don’t accept the principle that the burden of proof is on the one who makes the claim, then you have to believe everything that you hear. So I helpfully present an alternative—thinking rationally. You can of course also watch it on YouTube:
I got an email from a young man named Ken who asked me about an analogy Matt Dillahunty presents about whether the number of gumballs in a jar is odd or even. I originally did an unscripted answer but a lot of people missed the point so I did a scripted video which should be a lot clearer. You can of course watch it in YouTube:
Some thoughts on the story of the Rich Young Man (from the gospels) as well as what it means for it to be difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven given our modern technological wealth. Or you can watch it on YouTube:
I got a request to look at an analogy originally presented by Matt Dillahunty, so I explain why it’s a bad analogy. (Oddly, some atheists don’t seem to understand that to call something trivial is to say that it’s true. They seem stuck on the idea I’ve missed the point that reserving judgment is not identical with affirming a negative; which is true but only important in cases where one doesn’t have to act on the truth or falsity of the proposition, which has nothing whatever to do with whether God exists.) There’s a correction or two I should note, such as the original example was gumballs instead of marbles, and in some examples he specifies whole gumballs.
(I’m coming out with a scripted version of this video which will be much tighter, by the way.)
You can of course watch it on YouTube, too:
I’ve heard the explanation that some atheists become atheists because they want to feel smart. That never made much sense to me, but I’ve recently gotten some insight into what it might mean and I present that interpretation of the idea for consideration. You can also watch this on YouTube if you prefer:
A discussion about doing the easy stuff which makes one feel virtuous and the danger of therefore leaving off the harder acts of virtue because we feel like we already put a lot of work into being virtuous. You can watch it on YouTube if you prefer:
Some thoughts on misfortune and the attitudes one can have toward it. Or you can watch it on YouTube:
Some thoughts on how atheism is not a free-floating proposition but instead affects every aspect of reality. You can of course watch it on YouTube, too:
Some considerations about hypocrisy, and how this is a universal human problem in matters both religious and secular. If you prefer, you can watch it on YouTube:
You may recall my blog post The Death of Rock-n-Roll. After writing it, I invited Zarathustra’s Serpent to talk with me about the subject because he’s studied popular music quite extensively. This is the conversation we had. You can also watch the video on YouTube:
A logic lesson on the difference between valid arguments and sound arguments. Also some background about what arguments are and why validity matters. You can also view this video on YouTube:
I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Turley again, this time about secular versus religious views of space and its uses. You can also watch the video on YouTube if you prefer:
Or you can watch it on YouTube:
Looking at a video in which Jordan Peterson was interviewed and looking at how he dominated the argument. You can also watch it on YouTube:
Some thoughts on the subject of manning up (transitioning from a sub-adult male to an adult male). This video was done at the suggestion of The Frank Friar, after sharing some thoughts with him after watching his video, Be a Man!
You can also watch this as a YouTube video:
Chris Lansdown 
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